I'll Be There For You
by WishFlower
Summary: Sam and Freddie share the reason they're both without fathers. Set after iParty with Victorious.


**A/N so i was thinking about what sam said in iParty with Victorious about how her dad said he was coming back. Thats the only time sam has ever mentioned her father. So then i got to thinking about something that Freddie said in iGo to Japan. It was something like, 'my mom hasn't liked planes since-" and then sam pushes him out of the plane. So i put this together! It goes after iParty with Victorious, but before iOMG because that's the order of the episodes. Enjoy!**

"I hate men." Carly said adamantly.

"Men suck." Sam said, agreeing.

"I'm right here you know." Freddie said pointedly.

"Yeah? And?" Sam said rudely.

Freddie just sighed.

Carly was currently curled up on her couch shovelling Cookie Dough Ice Cream by the spoonful into her mouth and lamenting over Steven's cheating ways.

Carly sighed. "I'm just going to go to bed guys." She said sadly. "Thanks for coming over to ceremoniously set fire to everything that reminded me of Steven."

"No problem." Sam said, getting up. "I should go. My mom wants me to be home soon so I can help wax her legs."

Carly and Freddie both shuddered.

Carly shuffled upstairs and Sam and Freddie left the Shay apartment.

"Later, nub-face." Sam said with a wave.

"I'll walk you home." Freddie said, passing by his apartment to walk with Sam.

"Thanks but no thanks." Sam said with a snort. "I can take care of myself."

"Sam, it's like ten thirty at night. It's a big city and something could happen to you. Just let me walk you home." Freddie said quietly.

"Ugh, fine." Sam groaned.

They walked in silence until they were out of the building and walking down the street. Even though it was summer, it could still get cool in the night.

"I feel so bad for Carly." Freddie said. "That Steven guy was a real jerk."

"That's because men are scum!" Sam burst out. "You can never trust a man! Men use you and then throw you away when they're done!"

She then bolted away. She was running so fast, it felt like her feet weren't even hitting the ground. She could distantly hear Freddie calling after her, but she just ran faster. She could feel the wind stinging the tears on her cheeks and took a deep, gulping breath. She had to get out of there.

She felt a warm hand grab her around the wrist and pull her back. The sudden change in movement sent her crashing backwards into Freddie's chest. She was suddenly exhausted from running, from crying and from hurting all over again. She could feel tears leaking out of her eyes and onto Freddie's shirt.

He guided her somewhere and sat her down on a moving seat. She lucked up. It was a swing set. They very swing set that was in the park that she, Carly and Freddie had played at as children so many times. It was where she had hurt Freddie for the first time; she had pushed him off the slide when she was eight. Such fond memories this place had.

"Now why don't you tell me why you're so upset?" Freddie said gently. "This can't be just about Carly and Steven."

"I just... I'm just so tired of _men._" Sam said bitterly. "Of – of how they think they can... control us. Women. Me."

"Is this about your dad?" Freddie whispered after a long silence.

"Yes." Sam mumbled.

Freddie was slightly ashamed of himself. After nearly eight years of friendship (because they were friends no matter how much they tormented each other) he had never once asked why she only lived with her mother.

He could remember just a few days ago standing around Carly's computer and Sam muttering, _'Yes, and my dad once told my mom he was coming back.'_

"He left us." Sam admitted. "He said he was going out to buy a pack of cigarettes and he would be back in five minutes. It's been ten years."

"Oh, Sam." Freddie said compassionately. He could now understand why she was so ruthless; she was abandoned by someone who was supposed to love her unconditionally.

"I still don't understand why he left." She whispered, staring at the ground in front of her. "I thought he was happy. I thought he loved us."

Freddie sat on the swing next to her. He was starting to see Sam in a new way.

"For the longest time, I thought it was my fault." She said in a very low voice. "I thought... if I was better, or smarter or kinder, he would've stayed. But then, when Melanie left for boarding school, I realized now matter how perfect you try to be, people always leave you." Her voice cracked when she said 'leave' and tears pooled in her big blue eyes.

"Sam, it's not your fault." Freddie said firmly. "Never think that. I don't know why your dad left, but it wasn't because of you."

"I wished Melanie would've stayed." She admitted quietly. "Then I wouldn't have felt so alone. But I can understand why she left. She was hurt just as much as I was, and she couldn't stand to be in that house anymore, and be with me and my mom. I think she just wanted to forget that that ever happened, she wanted to go away and do something else." She continued on as if she had never heard him.

He though Melanie was made up, but now was clearly not the time to question it.

"When I was a kid, I used to imagine him coming back with his usual big, stupid smile on his face and complain about the traffic and pick me and swing me around and call me Sammy like he always did. But he never did." Sam was crying in earnest now.

Freddie got up from his swing and pulled her against him. He could feel her trembling against him and her tears wetting his t-shirt.

"My dad left too, you know." Freddie said. "But in a different sort of way."

Sam got the clue and pulled away from Freddie just far enough so she could look him in the eye. He could see the shock and horror in her ocean blue eyes. But he could see no pity, and was glad. He hated when people pitied him. Sam must feel the same way.

"How?" She whispered.

"In a plane accident. He was coming home from Vancouver for a business trip, and the plan ran into some fog. It crashed into a mountain. About ten years ago, just like when your dad left." Freddie muttered.

"I'm so sorry." Sam said. Freddie had heard that a lot since his dad died, but this was the first time he thought that someone actually meant it. Sam knew what it was like to lose a dad.

"My mom has been terrified of planes ever since. That's why she's so overprotective of me; she wants to keep me safe. I put up with it because I know what keeps her grounded. If I refused her care, she would be depressed like how she was when he died. It was so bad I had to live with my aunt for a month while my mom was living in the hospital." Freddie whispered, slightly ashamed.

Sam squeezed his hand, "My mom's an alcoholic. She has a different boyfriend every two days because she's scared if she gets too attached to someone, they'll leave her."

"Look at us," Freddie said with an ironic smirk. "My mom's an over-protective manic depressive and yours is an alcoholic with commitment phobia."

"And both of our dads are gone." Sam added.

She sounded sarcastic, but Freddie could tell her heart was broken. He had gotten a lot of sympathy because his dad was dead, but he thought that Sam deserved it more since her dad chose to leave.

"You know what, Sam?" Freddie asked her, trying to sound a bit lighter. "Since neither of us has strong families, why don't we be there for each other in the place of parents?"

He was nervous, asking her this. What if she said no? But he needed someone as strong as Sam to support him in a way his mother never did and his father wasn't there to. And, he figure, he could be strong for Sam as well.

"I'd like that." She said with a shy smile on her face. It gave him a warm feeling inside.

He put an arm around her. He felt closer to her, sharing things with her he has never shared with anyone before, not even Carly. He wanted to enjoy this moment of closeness, because he knew in the morning it would be gone.

"Let's go to the all-night diner, you know, the one with the super amazing bacon!" She said eagerly.

"Don' you have to go home to wax your mom's legs?"

"Meh, her legs can stay hairy for a bit longer." She then led the way to the greasy diner with the plastic menus and cracked seats. It was strange, being like this with Sam, but not in a bad way. It was kind of nice, being there for each other. He met her eyes and she grinned. He could tell she felt the same way as him.

**A/N i hope you like this! Please, please review! I dont own this, btw. **


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